Lisa Project will raise awareness

Visalia is a strong community. We live in a city with many opportunities and much civic pride, and Visalia is a great place to live and raise a family. As a member of the Visalia Unified Board of Education, I am proud to say that our schools are a part of why Visalia is a great place to live.

Even though we live in a great place, we can always work to improve our city. The Visalia Unified School Board believes that the entire community plays a role in the success of students. One of the goals of the Board is to ensure safe, secure, healthy, and positive learning environments. Personally, I wish to see that the board and our schools’ certificated and classified staff continue to work to make our community safer for kids. I believe that promoting child abuse prevention is one of the things that the school district can do that makes kids safer and more successful, and that can make the community stronger.

Every year more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving more than six million children. Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. About 30 percent of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.

If you are concerned about gangs, drug use, homelessness, mental illness and crime, it is worth knowing that many of these problems begin with early experiences of violence, abuse and neglect. Each of us can have some impact in eliminating child abuse: It is as simple as speaking up if abuse and neglect are seen.

As part of our work to support child abuse prevention locally, I am proud to announce that Visalia Unified School District, in partnership with the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council, is bringing the Lisa Project to Visalia from Sept. 22 to Oct. 4.

The Lisa Project is designed to help people talk about child abuse. It is a unique multi-sensory exhibit experience allowing the visitor to hear, see and experience the reality of the world of a child who has been abused. Through audio narration from a child’s perspective, visitors are guided room by room through scenarios depicting abuse. This experience fully immerses each guest into the world that these children face on a daily basis. The exhibit is rated PG-13 due to some mature content. Children under age 13 who come with guardians or parents will be allowed to walk through the exhibit but will not be given an audio device.

The result of this experience is a community that is made more aware, with positive and helpful steps given at the end of the tour to protect children and strengthen families.

­

Jim Qualls is President of the Visalia Unified School District Board of Trustees representing Area 3.

How to attend

What: The Lisa Project

When: The exhibition will be located at Golden West High School on Sept. 22-27 and then at Rotary Theatre on Sept. 29-October 4. Students will be provided an opportunity to view the exhibit during the school day, and the exhibit will be open to the public in the evenings from 4-8 p.m. on these dates, and open to the public as well from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 27 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 4. The exhibit is free to attend.